Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Friday, 01 Feb 2008 16:08
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Published by, Penguin, out now.
In a nutshell...
Inspiring, against-the-odds tale of a modern hero
What's it all about?
In a grand gesture and tribute to his sister shortly after her death, mountaineer Greg Mortensen set himself the goal of reaching the summit of K2, the second largest and most dangerous peak in the world. Destiny intervened however and after helping to drag a fellow climber back down to base camp, Mortenson found himself lost in the environment he thought he knew so well.
Tired and in desperate need of food and shelter, Mortenson miraculously stumbled into a remote village of Shiite Muslims called Korphe, where the local villagers nursed him back to health.
As he recovered, Mortenson couldn't help but notice the village children scrawling with sticks in the dirt for their daily school lesson. Appalled at the lack of facilities for the children to learn and inspired by their enthusiasm in which they attended these primitive classes, Mortenson found a way to thank the people of Korphe for saving his life. He promised to build them a school.
This small promise led to an adventure Mortenson could not have dreamed of, one which has not only changed his life, but has become his life.
Who's it by?
Three Cups of Tea was jointly written by mountaineer Greg Mortenson and journalist David Oliver Relin and comes together as one story told by two people: the hero Mortenson himself and the narrator, which is Relin.
As an example...
"Doctor Greg you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid." - Haji Ali, page 150
What the others say...
"David Oliver Relin's telling of Mortenson's story is completely absorbing, captivating and well written." - Alma Lee, Waterbridge Review
"Parade editor David Oliver Relin's fawning portrayal (Mortenson's only vice seems to be perpetual tardiness) can verge on tall tale, but the nobility of Mortenson's mountain-moving mission shines through the humdrum prose." - Timothy Gunatilaka, Entertainment Weekly
Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster
This book has blockbuster written all over it, helped greatly by the fact that Relin writes the story like you would a film - the characters, the ups and downs, the romances, the failures, the tragedies and the triumphs literally beg to brought to life on the big screen. A sequel to Brad Pitt's Seven Years in Tibet perhaps?
So is it any good?
There aren't so many tales of good do-ers, stories of triumph and legends of heroes that get read, yet Three Cups of Tea shouldn't be one of them. This up-lifting non-fiction narrative following Greg Mortenson on his journey to make the world a better place deserves the attention of anyone who picks this book up.
The stories and tales lived by Mortenson come exist in pieces that Relin has cut and pasted together to form the narrative and in this fashion the story is documentary-like. Unlike traditional non-fiction stories however, Three Cups of Tea is written in a story-telling-like quality, adding a shine and gloss to the real life narrative almost to the point where one has to remind oneself that Three Cups of Tea is not fiction. Yet this combination of fact and story-telling makes Three Cups of Tea all the more harder to put down, and it is this that does immense justice to Mortenson's story.
It is easy to see that what Relin is trying to show us is a hero in every sense in of the word. Mortenson is caring, selfless and tireless in his pursuits for the benefit of others, yet in some instances he seems too good to be true. It's hard to imagine someone sleeping their car for over a year so as to raise enough money for the building supplies needed to build a school on the opposite side of the world and Relin doesn't always go beyond the surface to help the reader really understand Mortenson's motivation. Relin is so obviously enamoured and generally astounded by Mortenson's selfless journey that he often gives Mortenson God-like qualities that take away from the fact that he is indeed human.
This is only a minor niggling detail however, and in the end, Relin's clear admiration for Mortenson and all he has accomplished filters through to the reader. The efforts of Greg Mortenson and all who have become apart of his story deserve the best treatment and together with Relin, this is exactly what is given in Three Cups of Tea. Read it and be reminded that heroes still exist.
8/10
Louise Cadell
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